OVER £9m LOST ON GAMBLING MACHINES IN ANGUS SINCE 2008

Graeme has called on the UK government to take tougher action to tackle the scourge of Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) in our local communities – after figures from the Campaign for Fairer Gambling revealed that over £9m had been lost on the gambling machines since 2008 across Angus.

Nationwide, over £1 billion has been lost on the machines, since 2008 – with £1.4m lost in Angus in 2015/16 alone.

The figures have led to calls from the SNP for the UK government to take action to tackle FOBTs, which remains reserved to Westminster – including by reducing the numbers allowed in betting shops, limiting the stakes that can be bet, reducing the time that can be spent on the machines, and also taking action to ban the machines altogether if people continue to lose out.

Commenting, Graeme Dey MSP said:

These are incredibly concerning figures. The Tory government may feel that they can’t afford to lose the tax revenue from the machines, but they cannot continue to ignore this issue when it is having such a clear and negative impact on our communities.

Fixed Odds Betting Terminals are so addictive they’re known as the ‘crack cocaine of gambling’, and research has shown that there is a far higher number of the terminals in areas of high unemployment than on richer high streets.

I know the industry itself has gone some way to monitoring and policing problem gambling on these machines. But clearly this isn’t addressing it.

The UK government must take action – by reducing the number of machines allowed in bookmakers, capping the stakes that can be bet, and taking action to ban the machines altogether if people continue to lose out.